ThinkPad Best Engineered Design Tour

ThinkPad Best Engineered Tour – Introduction
If customers want to know where the industry will be two years from now, they only need look at Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks today. But building the industry's Best Engineered PC means setting the bar continually higher. This year Lenovo doesn't just refresh existing designs with the latest core commodities and processors. We redefine design excellence and introduce new levels of protection, ease of use, and performance undreamed of by anyone else in the industry. 2007 will be remembered as a great year of ThinkPad innovation. This presentation highlights features found in ThinkPad T61, R61, X61, and X61 Tablet families.

Best Engineered Design Philosophy: Layers of Protection
When Lenovo’s Active Protection System sensor (select models) senses certain falls that could damage the hard disk, it protects the drive by automatically parking the read/write head. When the system is stable, it will resume normal operation.

A protection plate over the PCIe and PCMCIA card slots helps prevent hand pressure on the palm rest from damaging the expansion cards. A metal protection plate on every hard disk drive helps protect against physical shock as well as static electricity and dirt that can damage the drive electronics. A Hard Disk Drive Protection Pack helps protect hard disk drive from the many common types of shock events and helps reduce hard disk failure from operational shock.

To protect removable device as well as the system, ThinkPad notebooks feature a metal plate In the device bay.

A ThinkPad bottom cover needs these attributes:  strength to help protect against damage  low thermal conductivity to help keep the user comfortable  the capability to absorb shock to help reduce operating stress on internal components  the ability to be molded into the complex shapes necessary to form a bottom cover. ThinkPad notebooks use various materials like Magnesium, Titanium Carbon Fiber, and PC-ABS plastic that meet all of these requirements and are thick enough to provide excellent protection.

A ThinkPad top cover has different requirements. It needs stiffness so that any flex in the top cover does not damage the display and strength to withstand pressure from the top. In addition to this, ThinkPad design principles specify that a top cover must also be thin and light.

Cooler and Quieter Than Ever Before
Lenovo designs its own thermal solutions for ThinkPad notebooks. As a result, Lenovo can better control the temperature and flow of heat as compared to competitors who buy generic thermal solutions that have not been optimized for their specific systems. This helps keep reliability high because Lenovo can optimize each ThinkPad's design characteristics to help keep system components running cooler. It also enhances user comfort by keeping critical points like the bottom of the system, keyboard, and palm rest cool. The ThinkPad T61 and R61 families feature improved thermal management capability over previous designs. They are also Lenovo's quietest running systems ever too – up to 3dB less than before.

Typical Competitor

Typical ThinkPad

New features for 2007:
Add air vents on bottom
New processor heat sink design
Upper Heatsink 2

Lenovo Exclusive – Roll Cage
Lenovo’s Roll Cage* consists of a one piece magnesiumalloy* frame that has numerous system design benefits over ThinkPad systems without this frame. These include:  Reduced system board flex to help increase durability  An extra layer of HDD armor for added shock protection  Added thermal protection for a more comfortable system  Added protection for the optical disk drive As shown in the diagram below, adding a Roll Cage to a ThinkPad reduces strain by up to 4X on the system components compared to ThinkPad systems without a Roll Cage.
Previous Generation ThinkPad 0 PSI ThinkPad with Roll Cage 1600 PSI

Depth

1600 PSI

Zero Strain

*Roll Cage feature not available on ThinkPad X series or ThinkPad Tablet notebooks. *According to the International Magnesium Association, Mg alloys have the best strength-to-weight ratio of any of the commonly used structural metals.

Lenovo Exclusive – Display Roll Cage
ThinkPad T61 (all) and R61 (14.1" Wide) feature Lenovo's new Display Roll Cage. Similar in function to the system Roll Cage, the Display Roll Cage provides the following benefits over ThinkPad notebooks without this protection:  Extra impact resistance for the LCD display panel  Acts as a noise shield for better wireless antenna performance  Dedicated locations for each antenna type – build consistency makes for easier service by technicians  No cosmetic impact to system

Before LCD Roll Cage

ThinkPad With New Display Roll Cage

Up to 4X improvement in transmitted stress compared to ThinkPad notebooks without Display Roll Cage
*According to the International Magnesium Association, Mg alloys have the best strength-to-weight ratio of any of the commonly used structural metals.

Excellent Display Protection
Dual latches help keep ThinkPad systems closed and prevent foreign objects from getting between keyboard and display which can scratch screen. Structural arch on crown of display acts to stiffen the top cover and help prevent damage.

Full-contact display protection frame

Full contact display protection frame helps take pressure from the top of the display and transfers it to the sides, helping to protect it from pressure on top.

Thick stainless steel hinges firmly anchor display to base for more strength and to minimize torsion of display.

Tabs around display interlock with slots in the base providing a more secure closure.

Kensington Lock slot is integral to the hinge and has a reinforced metal collar so that it is more secure than many other vendors’ implementations.

Spill Resistance
All ThinkPad notebook keyboards are sealed and sit inside of a tray to be spill resistant. A drainage channel funnels spills to the bottom of the system, lessening the chance for damage should a spill occur.

ThinkPad Roll Cage features reservoirs to help manage liquid drainage.

Excellent Battery Life
ThinkPad Power Manager allows users to set processor speed, monitor brightness, refresh rate, and device timers. As each attribute is changed, the program clearly shows how each setting will affect system performance, temperature, fan sound level and battery life.
Temporary settings for extreme battery life
Apply the settings below to achieve extreme battery life. Previous settings will be restored when you next supply AC power or resume, restart or boot your computer. These settings will disable features. Modify settings if you wish to use those features.
Settings to change Enable temporary settings Display settings Minimize display brightness Turn off display after 30 seconds of idle time Minimize display refresh rate Wireless radio settings Disable wireless LAN radios Disable wireless WAN radios Disable Bluetooth and Ultra-Wideband radios Other settings Disable CDRW device (optical drive) Mute audio

Current battery life estimate:

0:29 min

All ThinkPad notebooks feature multiple standard and extended battery choices so users can work longer without plugging in.

Estimated increase in battery life: +0:13 min

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ThinkPad Power Manager provides additional ways for users to gain extra battery life. A user can temporarily disable unneeded devices and the system will let them know how much additional battery life they can expect to get.

ThinkVantage Access Connections allows user to create profiles which store network and Internet connection settings for both wired and wireless connections. The user can easily switch connections without having to reconfigure the computer manually.

Wireless on/off switch makes it easy to disable all wireless radios in the system.

Best Security
Optional integrated fingerprint readers and smart card readers provide both security and convenience for the user

ThinkPad features BIOS level hardware disable for various I/O options to give IT more control over information leaks from the PC. Enhanced ThinkPad BIOS provides advanced protection for the HDD password and is more tolerant against potential HDD / controller attacks

TPM security chip (select models) with downloadable Client Security Software can encrypt data on hard disk and help provide for secure access to the system.

Rescue and Recovery is designed to help provide data security due to software crashes. If activated by the user, the software backs up the user’s system to a protected area can restore it at the touch of a button, even when the system cannot boot.

System is designed with fewer screws than previous generation of ThinkPads to make it easier to service.

ThinkVantage button and quick Fn button combinations lets user access functions for configuring ThinkPad, system tools, and help using the system. System Migration Assistant software makes it easy to migrate data to a new PC.

To protect card slots, instead of plastic blanks that are easily lost, many ThinkPads feature a spring loaded door. The door automatically moves out of the way when a card is inserted and closes when the card is removed.
*WWAN

Presentation Director software makes it easy to configure ThinkPad notebooks for use with projector, monitor, or television with appropriate resolution and color settings. User can also disable screen saver, instant message pop ups, and power management.